Environment Variables

Pythinker Code supports overriding configuration or controlling runtime behavior through environment variables. This page lists all supported environment variables.

For detailed information on how environment variables override configuration files, see Config Overrides.

Pythinker environment variables

The following environment variables take effect when using pythinker type providers, used to override provider and model configuration.

Environment Variable	Description
PYTHINKER_BASE_URL	API base URL
PYTHINKER_API_KEY	API key
PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME	Model identifier
PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE	Maximum context length (in tokens)
PYTHINKER_MODEL_CAPABILITIES	Model capabilities, comma-separated (e.g., thinking,image_in)
PYTHINKER_MODEL_TEMPERATURE	Generation parameter temperature
PYTHINKER_MODEL_TOP_P	Generation parameter top_p
PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_TOKENS	Generation parameter max_tokens
PYTHINKER_MODEL_THINKING_KEEP	Pythinker AI thinking.keep switch for preserved thinking (only applied when thinking mode is active)

PYTHINKER_BASE_URL

Overrides the provider's base_url field in the configuration file.

export PYTHINKER_BASE_URL="https://api.pythinker-ai.cn/v1"

PYTHINKER_API_KEY

Overrides the provider's api_key field in the configuration file. Used to inject API keys without modifying the configuration file, suitable for CI/CD environments.

export PYTHINKER_API_KEY="sk-xxx"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME

Overrides the model's model field in the configuration file (the model identifier used in API calls).

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_NAME="pythinker-ai-thinking"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE

Overrides the model's max_context_size field in the configuration file. Must be a positive integer.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_CONTEXT_SIZE="262144"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_CAPABILITIES

Overrides the model's capabilities field in the configuration file. Multiple capabilities are comma-separated, supported values are thinking, always_thinking, image_in, and video_in.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_CAPABILITIES="thinking,image_in"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_TEMPERATURE

Sets the generation parameter temperature, controlling output randomness. Higher values produce more random output, lower values produce more deterministic output.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_TEMPERATURE="0.7"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_TOP_P

Sets the generation parameter top_p (nucleus sampling), controlling output diversity.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_TOP_P="0.9"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_TOKENS

Sets the generation parameter max_tokens, limiting the maximum tokens per response.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_MAX_TOKENS="4096"

PYTHINKER_MODEL_THINKING_KEEP

Forwards the value verbatim to the Pythinker AI API as thinking.keep, enabling Preserved Thinking (see the Pythinker AI docs). Setting it to all causes the provider to preserve the reasoning content of previous assistant turns across requests. The value is passed through unchanged, no validation or case normalization is performed.

export PYTHINKER_MODEL_THINKING_KEEP="all"

Empty string or unset means the field is omitted from the request (current default behavior). The override only applies when the model is actually in thinking mode; it is ignored for non-thinking runs so the API never receives a thinking.keep without the companion thinking.type.

This parameter only takes effect on Pythinker AI models that support Preserved Thinking (e.g., pythinker-ai / pythinker-ai-thinking). Passing it to other models has no effect or may be rejected by the API; the CLI does not validate the model.

Cost

thinking.keep=all instructs the API to retain historical reasoning content across turns, which increases input tokens and therefore API cost. Only enable it when the preserved thinking behavior is required.

OpenAI-compatible environment variables

The following environment variables take effect when using openai_legacy, openai_responses, or openai_codex type providers.

Environment Variable	Description
OPENAI_BASE_URL	API base URL
OPENAI_API_KEY	API key
OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY	OpenAI Admin API key for usage and cost data

OPENAI_BASE_URL

Overrides the provider's base_url field in the configuration file.

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"

OPENAI_API_KEY

Overrides the provider's api_key field in the configuration file.

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-xxx"

OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY

Provides an OpenAI Admin API key for /usage cost data. If unset, /usage falls back to rate-limit header data when available.

export OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY="sk-admin-xxx"

Other environment variables

Environment Variable	Description
PYTHINKER_SHARE_DIR	Customize the share directory path (default: ~/.pythinker)
PYTHINKER_CLI_NO_AUTO_UPDATE	Hard kill-switch: disable silent auto-install, update checks, and startup update notices
PYTHINKER_AUTO_UPDATE	Toggle silent startup auto-update (auto_update config field); the hard kill-switch PYTHINKER_CLI_NO_AUTO_UPDATE overrides it
PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_CHAR_THRESHOLD	Character threshold for folding pasted text (default: 200)
PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_LINE_THRESHOLD	Line threshold for folding pasted text (default: 5)

PYTHINKER_SHARE_DIR

Customize the share directory path for Pythinker Code. The default path is ~/.pythinker, where configuration, sessions, logs, and other runtime data are stored.

export PYTHINKER_SHARE_DIR="/path/to/custom/pythinker"

See Data Locations for details.

Note

PYTHINKER_SHARE_DIR does not affect Agent Skills search paths. Skills are cross-tool shared capability extensions (compatible with Claude, Codex, etc.), which is a different type of data from application runtime data. To override Skills paths, use the --skills-dir flag.

PYTHINKER_CLI_NO_AUTO_UPDATE

When set to 1, true, t, yes, or y (case-insensitive), disables proactive update checks and startup update notices. Pythinker startup remains non-blocking; run pythinker update or /update when you want to check manually.

export PYTHINKER_CLI_NO_AUTO_UPDATE="1"

TIP

If you installed Pythinker Code via Nix or other package managers, this environment variable is typically set automatically since updates are handled by the package manager.

PYTHINKER_AUTO_UPDATE

Set to 0/false/no to disable silent startup auto-updates, or 1/true/yes to enable them (default). This flips the auto_update config field.

export PYTHINKER_AUTO_UPDATE="false"

Hard kill-switch wins

PYTHINKER_CLI_NO_AUTO_UPDATE takes precedence: when it is set, PYTHINKER_AUTO_UPDATE=1 cannot re-enable updates, and Pythinker shows no update activity at all.

Per-channel behavior

When enabled and a newer installable release exists, Pythinker installs it in a background task and shows a one-line Updated X → Y. Restart Pythinker to apply. notice — the running session continues on the old version until you restart.

• Windows (native installer / pip): the process exits so the installer can replace the binary.
• Managed channels (Docker/Nix/Scoop/WinGet): no binary swap — Pythinker shows a channel-native upgrade hint instead.
• Source checkouts: never auto-update.

PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_CHAR_THRESHOLD

In Agent mode, when pasted text exceeds this character count, it is folded into a placeholder (e.g., [Pasted text #1 +10 lines]) and expanded to full content on submit. Default: 200.

export PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_CHAR_THRESHOLD="200"

PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_LINE_THRESHOLD

In Agent mode, when pasted text reaches this line count, it is folded into a placeholder. Default: 5.

export PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_LINE_THRESHOLD="5"

TIP

Some terminals (e.g., XShell over SSH) may break CJK input methods (Chinese/Japanese/Korean IME) after pasting multiline text. Symptoms include the IME candidate window not appearing or input becoming unresponsive until Ctrl+C is pressed.

This happens because multiline text in the input buffer can confuse the terminal's cursor position tracking, which affects IME composition window placement. You can work around this by lowering the line threshold to fold multiline pastes into single-line placeholders:

export PYTHINKER_CLI_PASTE_LINE_THRESHOLD="2"

With this setting, any paste containing a newline will be automatically folded, preventing multiline text from entering the input buffer. Single-line pastes (URLs, short commands, etc.) are not affected.

Note: The two thresholds use OR logic (character count or line count), so lowering only the line threshold is sufficient. Avoid setting the character threshold to a very small value (e.g., 1), as that would fold all non-empty pastes including single-line short text.